How The Medias Email Obsession Obliterated Clinton Policy Coverage - Eric Boehlert, MMFA

[Bill USA]

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/11/02/how-media-s-email-obsession-obliterated-clinton-policy-coverage/214242

And let's be honest, endless email coverage, most of which revolves around pure speculation, is just another excuse not to cover policy.




As I suggested in August, Clinton emails are the new Whitewater. Meaning, it’s a “scandal” in search of a crime and it’s a scandal production staged by Republicans with the eager help of the press. And yes you can substitute “Clinton Foundation” for “emails” and you get pretty much get similar results.

Part of that is because journalists are heavily invested in the emails storyline and have been since March 2015. Journalists want there to be a blockbuster story, just like it seemed clear so many journalists wanted the FBI to “reopen” its investigation last week. (They’re not.)

Part of that stems from a never-ending attempt to criminalize the Clintons. And part of that’s because the campaign press wants more spectacle to cover during the closing days of the election. (Especially anti-Clinton spectacle.)

“The media’s urgency to maintain drama in an election that was increasingly looking like a blowout” made the return of the email storyline “inevitable,” according to professors Matthew Baum and Phil Gussin, writing in The Washington Post. “A dramatic horse race in which the outcome is uncertain and continually fluctuating is perpetually novel. Additional stories about the candidates’ long-standing policy positions? Not so much.”
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[JHan]

1. The political media lost its damn mind this year.

[Igel]

3. Yes.

And wants to say they were manipulated and can't be held responsible.

They stories are what they are. You're no less a gossip monger when you parrot leaks from a weak-willed friend than an illegal hack or self-righteous bean-spiller.

[Bill USA]

4. M$M scolds FB 4 Fake news, preens self on biggest fake news story: Clinton email "scandal"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016171958

[JHan]

5. that's one of the best things I've read on the email "scandal"

The media has only itself to blame.

[Bill USA]

6. here's some more...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016172902#post3

[silverweb]

2. Going for the ratings.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]A lot of people consider policy discussion "boring" - until its aftermath affects them personally, of course, and then they blame the wrong people.